Getty Darvin Ham, Los Angeles Lakers
On October 18, the Los Angeles Lakers will start their new season with a game against the Golden State Warriors.
However, according to an October 16 report from Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes, it would appear that Russell Westbrook won’t be participating in the season opener due to hamstring soreness.
After an examination, Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook is dealing with a sore left hamstring with no structural damage and will be listed as day-to-day, league sources tell @YahooSports.
“After an examination, Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook is dealing with a sore left hamstring with no structural damage and will be listed as day-to-day, league sources tell @YahooSports,” Haynes wrote.
Westbrook left the Lakers’ October 14 contest against the Sacramento Kings after just 4:53 of game time, which led many to speculate that he could potentially be dealing with an injury.
With no timetable set for Westbrook’s return, the Lakers will now be short-handed at the guard position – either in their starting five or off the bench, but it will give the front office and coaching staff some valuable sample sizes to see how the team performs without the much-maligned star in the rotation. And of course, Westbrook being out of the rotation will open the door for Dennis Schroder to audition for the primary guard role.
Westbrook Could Become Lakers 6th Man
Against the Kings, Darvin Ham experimented with bringing Westbrook off the bench, in the hopes that by giving him the keys to the second unit, the 33-year-old star would tap into his star powers and become a focal point of Los Angeles’ rotation. Unfortunately, the hamstring injury Westbrook sustained cut that experiment short.
Yet, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers remain open to continuing that experiment once Westbrook returns to full health.
REPORT: The Lakers will continue to “explore” bringing Russell Westbrook off the bench during the regular season.
(via @mcten, t.co/zt5fNhLnvD)
“The Lakers’ most optimistic outlook for Westbrook is that Ham will get through to him in a way that Vogel couldn’t, and the nine-time All-Star will have a bounce-back season with some better effort defensively and better discretion offensively. Ham closed out the preseason by bringing Westbrook off the bench, a lineup the Lakers will continue to explore during the regular season, sources told ESPN,” McMenamin wrote on October 16.
Westbrook’s immediate future with the Lakers could hinge upon his willingness to accept a bench role, otherwise, there’s a genuine possibility Ham and Rob Pelinka decide to shut him down for the final year of his contract.
Anthony Davis Expecting Lakers to Contend
If you were to ask 100 NBA fans who would win a championship at the end of the upcoming season, chances are, none of them would reply with the Lakers. Such is the burden of failing to make the postseason a year after being dispatched in the first round.
However, according to Anthony Davis, the Lakers locker room still believes they have all the ingredients necessary to make a deep playoff run, and that external opinions are being based on previous iterations of the team, rather than the one which will take to the floor this year.
“No one has us winning it this year besides us in this organization”
Anthony Davis has high expectations heading into the season. Hear more from AD on the Lakers Season Preview Show streaming now!
“The past year, year and a half, we’ve only been seen in a negative light…It’s on us, yes, we have to win basketball games, obviously…We have two mediocre seasons, and now it’s whatever. Which is fine, we don’t really care, we just go out and play basketball and perform. But, it’s also the truth, I mean no one has us winning it (a championship) this year, except for us in this organization.
When you have two seasons like that, things happen and people start having their opinions. But, we feel like we’re the underdogs and I feel like everybody on this team has something to prove, and everybody has a chip on their shoulder. We’re gonna come out ready to play this season,” Davis said.
If Davis can remain healthy, and Westbrook accepts his new role, there is no reason why the Lakers can’t figure things out and put the rest of the league on notice – but to do that, the team’s star players need to remain healthy and that’s never something you can predict.